Fingringhoe Wick is a nature reserve in

Fingringhoe Fingringhoe is a village and civil parish in Essex, England, located five miles south-east of Colchester. The centre of the village is classified as a conservation area, featuring a traditional village pond and red telephone box. The ''Roman Ri ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. It is managed by the

Essex Wildlife Trust The Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) is one of 46 wildlife trusts which cover the United Kingdom. The EWT was founded in 1959, and it describes itself as Essex's leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the future and the peopl ...

, which runs a visitor centre on the site. It is part of the

Colne Estuary Colne Estuary is a 2915 hectare biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Brightlingsea in Essex. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, a National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar wetland site of international importan ...

Site of Special Scientific Interest,

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) ** Nature Conservation Review ''A Nature Conservation Review'' is a two-volume work by Derek Ratcliffe, published by Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of E ...

site. These former gravel quarries were the Trust's first reserve, established in 1961. Habitats are the

, gorse heathland, grassland, reedbeds and ponds. There are nearly 200 species of birds and 350 of flowering plants, together with many dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies. The reserve is famous for its 35-plus singing males of

Common Nightingale The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is ...

in the spring. The site can be accessed by a 30 to 45 minute walk along the Gravel Pit Trail from Fingringhoe village.

References

{{coord, 51.835, 0.971 , type:landmark_region:GB-BNE, display=title Essex Wildlife Trust